Social control and statecraft

Brief Introduction to the Politicization of Christianity and its Consequences (Outline)

Ian Johnson April 2, 2021 1 Comment

Introductory installment in a brief summary of a “big picture” overview of Western religious and political history, starting with Jesus and moving to the present. Overall thesis: Much of world history has been caused by the illegitimate politicization of Christianity.

Background Information, Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Compulsory Christianity, Historical Background, Index, Islam and Christianity, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Sins versus sin, Social control and statecraft, Topic Index, What Christianity borrowed from Islam, What Islam borrowed from Christianity

Christianity, Errors, Islam, Muhammad, Politicization, Politics, power, Statcraft, war

The Effect of Organized Christianity’s Early Departures from its Roots Upon the Rise of Islam

Ian Johnson December 26, 2020 1 Comment

This is an outline of the third part of my attempt to link early errors of organized Christianity to the state of the modern world–specifically, in this part, by showing how they influenced Islam. Links will be added as future posts are written.

Background Information, Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Church purpose versus church growth, Divisions in the Church, Historical Background, Islam and Christianity, Islam as a Consequence, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Social control and statecraft, Topic Index, What Islam borrowed from Christianity

antifeminism, Christian division, Christian errors, Divine Simplicity, Influence of Christian Errors on Islam, Islam, Jihad, Judgment, Monotheism, moralism

The Departure of Organized Christianity from its Roots, Second through Sixth Centuries CE

Ian Johnson December 25, 2020 1 Comment

This is an outline of the second part of my attempt to link early errors of organized Christianity to the state of the modern world–specifically, in this part, by showing the origins and entrance of specific errors before Muhammad which profoundly affected subsequent history. Links will be added as future posts are written.

A God who Speaks, Adoption, Authority Contests, Background Information, Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Discipline or Correction, Disputes about words, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Free will, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's sovereignty, God's Voice, Greed, Heresy, Historical Background, Index, Injustice and Lawsuits, Jesus the Son, Leaving Our First Love, Male and female, Marriage, Marriage and Reproduction, Merit, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Prophecy, Purpose of the Church, Quarrels, Regeneration, Religious violence and persecution, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Salvation, Sin, Sins versus sin, Site Index Page, Social control and statecraft, Son of Man, The Bible, Through the church, To be in his image, Trinity, Unity, Wars as consequences, What is God's Word, What is sin?

Christian Divisions, Fifth Century Christianity, Fourth Century Christianity, Hellenistic Phiolosophy, heresy, Heresy hunting, Index, Just War Theory, Monotheism, Roman Law, Roman Law and Jurisprudence, Roman Religion, Rome, Second Century Christianity, Sixth Century Christianity, Syncretism, Third Century Christianity

The Scarecrow Fallacy

Ian Johnson December 7, 2020 5 Comments

To commit the “Scarecrow Fallacy,” which I have named after the Scarecrow character in the 1939 movie the Wizard of Oz, is to mistake a diploma for knowledge or a credential for God’s calling. God usually makes use of available formal education, and often acts through the organized Church’s mechanisms of licensure and ordination, but has never bound himself always to do so. It is possible to have a very powerful calling from God with no formal human recognition, and also, unfortunately too common to have excellent ministry credentials and no relationship with Jesus whatsoever.

A God who Speaks, God Speaks to Us, Heresy, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Prophecy, Social control and statecraft, The universal Church and local churches, Through others, Through the church, Uncategorized

been with Jesus, being with Jesus, Christian education, credential, credentialing, degree, diploma, education, fallacy, formal education, licensure, opinions of others, Scarecrow, Wizard of Oz

On the Other Extreme—1 Timothy 4 and Colossians 2

Ian Johnson October 29, 2020 2 Comments

Divisions in the church have been started not only by leaders who taught license to attract followers, but also by leaders who taught extreme asceticism– that God is only pleased by those who keep the strict rules they prescribe.

Authority Contests, Divisions in the Church, Heresy, Leaving Our First Love, Peril of Seeking Power, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Social control and statecraft

asceticism, Divisions, extreme ascetic, heresy, heretic, morality, rules, strictness

The Meanings and Occurrences of the Underlying Words for “Heresy”

Ian Johnson August 2, 2020 3 Comments

The words “heretic” and “heresy” in English New Testament translations are actually transliterations of Greek words that primarily denote division or divisiveness. They are used with those primary meanings in Acts. They did not come to secondarily connote teaching,teachers or doctrines disapproved by a church organization until the late second century. Tha authors of the New Testament did not know of this later technical meaning.

Compulsory Christianity, Divisions in the Church, Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Social control and statecraft, To live in unity

Against Heresies, Constantine, conversion of Constantine, definition of heresy, definition of heretic, Definitions, division, divisive person, false teaching, heresy, heretic, Iranaeus, technical term, term of art, Theodosius

Heresy is Division in the Church

Ian Johnson August 1, 2020 4 Comments

Heresy is properly defined as divisiveness, not merely believing a false doctrine. Heretics are divisive people. Those who state doctrines with which I disagree, but do so without insisting on division because of my belief, are not heretics. Thus calls for mutual understanding and patience.

Church purpose versus church growth, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Greed, Heresy, His Friends, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Sins versus sin, Social control and statecraft, To live in unity

Church History, Church unity, definition of heresy, division, divisive people, divisiveness, doctrinal disagreements, doctrine, heresy, heretic, heretical, Our Oneness in Christ, Unity

From Early Christianity to Islam and Back–2. Negative Developments in Christianity Before Muhammad

Ian Johnson July 14, 2020 7 Comments

Between the end of the First Century CE and the end of the Sixth Century, Christianity grew but also deteriorated in a number of ways. The deterioration arose mainly from the infiltration of Greek philosophy, a change in emphasis to mass evangelism and the politicization of Christianity, followed by the questionable conversion of Constantine. These changes set up many of the specific parts of Christianity that Islam either adopted, or reacted strongly against. They also set up mucj of later European history.

A God who Speaks, Church purpose versus church growth, Compulsory Christianity, God Acts by Speaking, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Voice, Heresy, Historical Background, Injustice and Lawsuits, Islam and Christianity, Jesus the Son, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Religious violence and persecution, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Social control and statecraft, Son of Man, The Bible, Through the church, Trinity, Unity, Wars as consequences, What Islam borrowed from Christianity

Arab Christians, Arabs, Arian, Atanasian, Christianity and politics, Church, church and state, Church History, Church of the East, Church unity, Constantine, Council of Chalcedon, false unity, Fist Council of Nicaea, Goths, heresy, heretic, heretical movements, mass evangelism, moralism, morality, Nestorian, Persia, subjugation of women, Theodosius, women

About Racism

Ian Johnson June 15, 2020 4 Comments

The ultimate solution to our national racisms lies in the Church, in who we are in Christ. We are not called to uncritically support the current social order, no matter how unjust. We are called to show how social divisions are overcome by the Holy Spirit among us.

An abuse of God's image, Christianity and Social Evils, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Divisions in the Church, Emotions, God's sovereignty, Human Rationality, Injustice and Lawsuits, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Racism, Rejecting God, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Restoration of God's Image, Show us the Way of Truth, Social control and statecraft, The Bible, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To be in his image, To live in unity, Uncategorized, What is sin?

#AllLivesMatter, #BlackLivesMatter, change, Christ, Christianity, Dallas Willard, divisive language, equality, favoritism, God, heart change, Holy Spirit, human heart, Jacques Ellul, Jesus, peace, Racism, repent, repentance, Unity

Unity in Diversity as an Attribute of God

Ian Johnson June 1, 2020 6 Comments

God is a complex unity–Three in One by nature–and is also one with us who believe, by adoption. He is not an absolutely simple unity, as is often taught. This false teaching comes from early efforts to make the Gospel more acceptable to the upper classes of Roman society by introducing Neoplatonist philosophy into it. But it instead destroys the Gospel by making God incapable of having any real unity with his children.

Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Social control and statecraft, To be in his image, Trinity, Unity

Christian theology, Christianity, complex unity, complexity, Divine Simplicity, God, gospel, mindful consciousness, Neoplatonism, Nous, Platonism, Three in One, Trinity, Unity

Brief Introduction to the Politicization of Christianity and its Consequences (Outline)

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The Effect of Organized Christianity’s Early Departures from its Roots Upon the Rise of Islam

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The Departure of Organized Christianity from its Roots, Second through Sixth Centuries CE

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The Scarecrow Fallacy

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On the Other Extreme—1 Timothy 4 and Colossians 2

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The Meanings and Occurrences of the Underlying Words for “Heresy”

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Heresy is Division in the Church

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From Early Christianity to Islam and Back–2. Negative Developments in Christianity Before Muhammad

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Unity in Diversity as an Attribute of God

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Social control and statecraft

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